Steve Mason - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Tue 9 Apr 2013

Heady atmosphere evidence of deep personal and musical connection

The beered-up battalion swarming the venue are celebrating like a home game victory. Why wouldn’t they be on this Tuesday? (Insert obvious Thatcher comment here.) But it’s Mason’s danceable, wry mid-tempo indie that's the primary source of the crowd’s adulation. Fresh after new album, Monkey Minds in the Devil’s Time, we find Mason (known to some as King Biscuit Time, Black Affair or ‘him from The Beta Band’) suitably dry, but in high spirits.

He might not be the most exciting performer tonight, visually or indeed musically (unless you worship casual use of a tambourine) but his songs are skewed with personal and social commentary cut from the same cloth as the majority of his fans – mostly middle-aged men from predominantly ‘working class’ Scotland – and it is clear that there is a deep personal and musical connection present, with even newer songs such as the rousing, ‘Oh My Lord’ meeting raised glasses, big cheers and glassy-eyed singalongs. By the time he hits ‘Come to Me’, the place is a mess. From a performance standpoint, the show might lack flair or punch, but you can tell the loyal are going home with bruises.

Steve Mason - Oh My Lord (Official Video)

Steve Mason - Fight Them Back (Official Video)

Comments

What a strange review. I was there and it was not how you portay it, which was pretty much like how you might portray a Kasabian or Noel Gallagher gig. The reason for middle aged men being there I presume is for the same reason I was there - to see one of the most inventive musicians and songwriters of the last umpteen years, who happened to kick it all off with the Beta Band in the mid to late 90s, a band not exactly renowned for their lad rock.